


The Naming of a Dragon

by thecatinthepurplepants



Series: The Naming of a Dragon [1]
Category: None - Fandom
Genre: Dragons, Original Character-centric, Original Fiction, Original Universe, Original work - Freeform, Other, POV Third Person, enchanted chain-mail bikini, it's got a dragon so that's a plus, not really a fic but i had to put this somewhere
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-13 17:53:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3390776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecatinthepurplepants/pseuds/thecatinthepurplepants
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deep in the outer ring of a dark and deadly forest filled with creatures both magical and dangerous, in a world unknown to this one, laid in rest one of the most fearsome beasts of all. A lone dragon. Dragons are known mainly for their ferocity, the unstoppable fire that dwells in their hearts, and the strength under the beat of their wings that is enough to rival even the greatest of tempests. They are fairly rare even in worlds of magic, but still formidable and well feared in any land they are present in. This dragon in particular was no exception to the rule, towering to a height of 35 feet from the bottom of their front foot to the top of their head when on all fours, 67 feet from snout to tail tip, six inch fangs, all backed up with a nasty reputation that spanned about 400 years and every country in the world.</p>
<p>And then some over excitable human dweeb came along and ruined their life in the best way possible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Apple and Some Less Than Friendly Fairies

**Author's Note:**

> This is an original story I wrote for a creative writing project and ended up liking WAY too much. I'm hoping to add more to it later. I may also add some off shoot drabbles to it. Anyways, I hope you enjoy.

Deep in the outer ring of a dark and deadly forest filled with creatures both magical and dangerous, in a world unknown to this one, laid in rest one of the most fearsome beasts of all. A lone dragon. Dragons are known mainly for their ferocity, the unstoppable fire that dwells in their hearts, and the strength under the beat of their wings that is enough to rival even the greatest of tempests. They are fairly rare even in worlds of magic, but still formidable and well feared in any land they are present in. This dragon in particular was no exception to the rule, towering to a height of 35 feet from the bottom of their front foot to the top of their head when on all fours, 67 feet from snout to tail tip, six inch fangs, all backed up with a nasty reputation that spanned about 400 years and every country in the world. With the minor exception for the northern islands. No dragon was insane enough to want to take on the northern marauders or the surviving exiles that were shipped out of their own countries for their heinous crimes.  
This dragon in particular had been on a sort of vacation from the 400 year pillaging and burning spree of their youth, a vacation that had lasted about 73 years but still just a vacation. So what that most of the reason for that vacation had been because of the loss of the dragon’s left wing? So what if most of said vacation mostly consisted of moping, sleeping, harassing the more mild mannered fairies that lived nearby, and being bored out of their skull? The dragon had a nice clearing with a large slab of rock to warm themself on every morning and plenty of fat wild cows wandering in a prairie just outside the forest to eat, and that’s all one really needed right? The dragon rolled over on their slab of granite to get more of the sun streaming through the leaves overhead onto their sky blue belly, still being careful not to put too much pressure on the sad stub that used to be their left wing even though it was fully healed now. They stretched their one good wing up towards the canopy and admired the blue underside that matched their underbelly and neck then examined the light and dark green mottled top side of their wing that was the same colors as the rest of their scales, or they examined as much as they could without twisting the joint that met with their shoulder. After multiple joints in the wing had popped and stretched sufficiently the dragon tucked it back against it’s side with a gust of a sigh, leaving the grass a couple feet in front of the beast partially singed.  
They couldn’t help but to reminisce about the good ol’ days back when they were the well known scourge of the skies, and at such a young age too. 400 years was nothing in the life span of a dragon and it seemed to fly by in a blur of fire and carnage. But the past 73 years had felt like an eternity to them. The most eventful thing that they’d done in all that time is occasionally swat at faries that were trying to get the dragon back for knocking over a couple of their buildings once. Honestly they were shoddy structuring at best, they would have been blown over by the next windstorm anyway so they had no idea what the fairies were so mad about.  
The dragon had spent a good thirty minutes staring into space, their gold eyes which were usually so piercing now glassy as they continued to wallow in self pity and then get angry at their own self pity only to pity themself more in a viscous cycle that went absolutely nowhere. They were so immersed in this cycle that went on in their head almost every day that they barely even noticed the fairies nearby sounding the high pitch alarm for “human coming”. The alarm was purposefully set in a frequency just outside of the human hearing range but for the dragon it was loud and clear, jolting them out of their haze to sit upright and listen harder. Who ever it was they had no talent for stealth at all, the dragon could plainly hear them bumbling and crashing through the underbrush like a clumsy mastiff with a clubfoot and a bonk to the head, and the poor unsuspecting human was coming right towards the dragon’s clearing.  
The dragon had to make a quick decision, what would they do with the little lump of flesh? The dragon had never liked humans much and it occurred to them just to eat the human. But humans didn’t taste the best and that would be such a waste of some possibly good entertainment, the first entertainment they’d had in years. No humans came through The Forest, they either had some cocamaimey superstition about the forest being cursed or they had enough common sense to know that they could never survive in the forest without being extremely prepared or extremely lucky. They were too scared to even properly name it so it remained known as The Forest. The dragon could scare the human but that would be too easy, too simple. Honestly the dragon just wanted some sort of intelligent conversation, and while the fairies could provide that they didn’t much want to talk to him and their shrill little voices and complex language gave them a headache and grated on their nerves. So the dragon decided that playing the role of a wandering human and talk for a while, if the human was worth it maybe they would make a good game of chase and a meal out of the little skin sack.  
Dragon’s have a considerable amount of magic at their disposal, not as much as a professional magic user but more than the average organism. They were able to use this magic to take on a human form, it was more of a disguise but not quite an illusion seeing that they were very much flesh and blood in this human form. Certain traits from the dragon carried over to the human form they took which made them a little easier to spot. The dragon’s human form had light green hair that was long and pulled back into a ponytail, the same gold eyes with slit pupils, sharper canines than normal, dark tan skin, and a missing left arm that was covered by a long sleeve. Their face was androgynous but had a stern look seemingly always plastered to their face along with a flat chest and wide set hips. Their human form came complete with an outfit, a dark green trench coat that covered a sky blue loose fitting blouse and plain black pants, they wore no shoes simply because they couldn’t find any good reason for them when the soles of their feet were so tough. They were tall and their face impassive as they finally finished transforming just in time for the bumbling human to come stumbling through the bushes ahead of the slab of rock the disguised dragon was standing on, their arm folded behind their back while they looked down their nose at the human.  
The first thing the dragon saw was the blur of short, blonde, curly hair heading towards the ground as the young man tripped on a root and fell flat on his face. He was quick to bounce up however even though the backpack he had strapped to him looked bigger than he did and twice as heavy, complete with a couple cooking pots and pans hanging off of it and a sleeping roll fastened to the top. He didn’t seem to notice the stranger up ahead on the rock who was scrutinizing him so closely, at least not at first. He was too busy dusting himself off and spitting out blades of grass, he didn’t know that he had a small tree’s worth of leaves sticking out of his sunshine curls but a couple fell out when he shook his head.  
At this point the dragon was torn between laughing hysterically or shaking their head and walking away from the little bean pole of a human boy. He couldn’t have been more than 120 pounds soaking wet and he was all gangly legs and sharp elbows. The dragon was almost sure that he wasn’t worth the time when he finally noticed they were there and their chance to leave was gone. He flashed a wide, gap toothed grin at them and grabbed onto the straps of his bag as he jogged up to the base of the rock the dragon was still standing on, he made quite a lot of noise when he moved with his clunky backpack. “Hi there! I’m glad to see you, I mean because there haven’t really been any people out here that I’ve met so it’s good to know that I’m not completely alone out here!” He yammered in an all too cheery manner.  
The dragon raised an eyebrow and cleared their throat, “Most people know not to try and venture into this forest so it’s not all that surprising really. So what brings a lone hu-” they had to catch themself before they raised suspicion by calling him “human”, “a lone boy into The Forest this far? You do know it only gets more dangerous as you get closer to the the center, right? Because it seems like that root back there almost bested you.” The dragon had almost forgotten what their own voice sounded like, it was smooth and pleasant with a slight rasp. In their true form their voice was much deeper because of the bigger vocal chords but it was still recognizable as theirs.  
The boy let out a light burst of laughter as if the dragon hadn’t just made fun of him, “Yeah I know, the root caught me off guard so you can’t really blame me. I’m going to the center of the forest to look for an old castle that’s supposed to be full of treasure. You know that story?” He didn’t wait for an answer before he continued, “An old paranoid king was afraid that someone was going to take all his treasure so he decided to build a new castle in the middle of The Forest where no one would come to steal from him.” As he babbled animatedly he set his bag on the ground with noisy thump and started rummaging around before he pulled out a rolled up paper that had taken quite the beating in that bag. He unrolled it and held it up by the top for the dragon to see clearly, pointing to the center of the large green blob labeled “The Forest” on the south eastern side of the continent they were currently in. “It’s considered a legend but the treasure is supposed to still be there so I figured why not try to find it for myself, ya know?”  
The dragon looked down at the map with a blank expression, “How adventurous.” They said. How absolutely idiotic. They thought.  
The boy put down the map and rolled it up again, taking on a more sheepish smile, “I guess it is. But uh, the thing is I don’t exactly know the right path to get to the center of The Forest without, you know, dying and stuff. You wouldn’t happen to know how to get there would you mi- um… Excuse me for asking but do you go by mister or miss?” He shyly inquired.  
It took just about everything the dragon had not to roll their eyes and pinch the bridge of their nose in pure exasperation, they’d forgotten about that little obsession humans had with that whole “gender” thing. It had always confused dragons why the humans who were lucky enough not to be killed right off the bat always asked them the “boy or girl” question when dragons were all neither of those things. Dragon’s had one gender and that was dragon. The dragon didn’t want to indulge in this fixation so they simply replied rather dryly with “I go by neither of those.”  
The boy reacted with surprising grace, “Okay then stranger, so do you know the safe way to the center of The Forest?” He asked, going back to his original chipper tone.  
The stranger couldn’t help but snort, “There is no safe way to the center of The Forest, only hoping that you run into the least amount of danger. And even the minimum troubles you’ll run into along the way are enough to kill you. I suggest praying to whatever god or entity you worship, walking in a straight line towards the center, and then pray some more. Maybe you’ll make it another half a mile or so.” They said only slightly smugly.  
They saw the boy turn into the very picture of dejection, slumped shoulders, wide eyes, and a deep pout. “Oh, okay then. Thanks for your help anyways, stranger.” He picked up his bag and hefted it over his bony shoulder. He took a deep breath and looked back up at the dragon with a smile that was only half way forced, “Well, have a- Oh wait!” He scrambled to take off his bag again to get something out of a side pocket, “I noticed that you don’t have much with you in the way of food and i don’t have much to give you as a thank you, so here.” The human took out a bright red apple and handed it up to the dragon, who took it a little hesitantly and examined it in the light as if they were expecting it to be anything other than just an apple up close. By the time they were done looking at the apple and had looked back to the boy with a puzzled look he already had his bag back on his shoulders and he was starting to walk around the boulder on his way back into the woods. “Have a nice day! Maybe our paths with cross again by chance some other time.” He yelled over his shoulder with a final laugh before he stumbled his way back into the forest.  
The dragon still held the apple and had turned about half way to watch the peculiar human leave. In all the years they’d existed they had never received a gift of any kind that wasn’t given by a person motivated by fear. Sure it was just an apple but it was still a gift none the less. But the longer they thought about it they realized how silly they were being about it, getting sentimental over an apple. They didn’t even eat fruit, they were a carnivore so it would probably be like eating dirt. Stupid humans and their stupid little gifts. Once the human boy was well out of the range of sight they changed back into their dragon form and spitefully popped the apple into their mouth whole. They crushed it with their teeth and were surprised to find the flavor very pleasant and sweet. Okay so maybe they liked apples now, so what? The gift was still stupid, they continued to think things like this as they absentmindedly licked their chops and flopped back down onto the rock with a fiery huff.  
They had just closed their eyes and gotten their mind off the stupid apple when they heard the human boy screeching bloody murder a ways off in the woods. His screams were accompanied by the malicious, high pitched squeals of countless fairies. The idiot had stumbled his way into the fairies nest. Everyone knew to avoid large groups of forest dwelling fairies if possible, they were mean spirited, mischievous, and territorial beyond belief. And they grew worse the deeper into the forest they lived. The dragon tried to ignore it the best they could and get on with their nap but no matter what they did the human’s screams for help kept them very much awake and the fairies victory screeches were giving them a headache.  
They weren’t going to get involved, who ever heard of a dragon coming to the rescue of a human anyway? Nope, they were staying right where they were and letting the boy be killed by fairies. No way in hell were they thinking about how much they were glad they had tried apples for the first time, because hey, turned out those things were delicious. Yep, they were perfectly fine with laying on their rock and letting him die...  
As they crashed through the woods towards the noise, the dragon muttered angrily to themself about how they were going absolutely nuts and how they would never let themself live this down. They knocked over a rotten tree with the flick of their tail as they stomped by in irritation, head lowered, ears laid back, and teeth bared into a snarl as they grumbled to themself. They heard that they were getting close and let out a ground shaking roar as they bulldozed their way through the trees and into the small clearing that the fairies had made their home. There were many tiny huts made out of twigs, moss, and mud that the dragon trampled easily underfoot as they made their way into the middle of the clearing where the fairies were making a spectacle out of torturing the boy.  
He had been tied up with small but strong ropes woven out of willow vines and held together with sap and spider’s silk to strengthen it. He was being hung upside down from a tree like a living piñata, his arms tied down to his sides and his legs tied together so the most he could do in the way of movement was flail back and forth like a very tall, scrawny fish on a line. The had been using him as a giant pin cushion, sticking their tiny twig spears into his sides and limbs. It wasn’t much damage but the dragon knew from having fairies sneak attack on the tender webbing in between their fingers while they were sleeping that it hurt like a motherfucker. Many of the spears were still sticking out of him and the boy started screaming even louder when he saw the dragon heading straight for him. The fairies around the boy scattered in fear at the sight of the angry beast. Then they tried to regroup and turn their attentions towards the dragon, aiming for their eyes, ears, and any spot on them that might cause pain. the dragon roared again, scaring the fairies into another scatter so they had time to grab the rope that tied the boy to a large tree branch, snapped the rope free of the tree, and carried the still screaming human off as he dangled from their mouth. The dragon stomped back into the woods as the fairies threw every spear they had at them, they didn’t follow them, they had to salvage what they could of their village as soon as they could before they were caught by a storm with no shelter.  
As the dragon tromped through the brush the human boy continued to scream and plead for his life as he swung back and forth from the rope hanging from the beast’s jaws. Once the dragon figured that they were far enough away from the fairies they laid the human on the ground with a thud and took the time to sigh heavily and rub their temple in aggravation before looking down at the human. He had rolled onto his stomach and was trying to inch worm his way away from the dragon who watched him for a couple seconds before finally questioning him in an exasperated tone, “What in the world are you doing?”  
They saw the human stop as if he was trying to place the vaguely familiar booming voice that came from the dragon. He rolled onto his back and sat up, looking at the dragon with a half and half mix of fear and curiosity, “Aren’t you going to eat me?” He asked with a fair amount of confusion.  
The dragon rolled their eyes at him and began to shift back down to their human disguise, talking as they did, “No, you’re too scrawny to be anything other than a toothpick, you blithering idiot.” They huffed in exasperation.  
Once they were fully transformed the human wiggled happily in his bonds, “Oh hey! Boy am I glad to see you again! I didn’t realize you were a sorcerer!” He babbled as he shifted his arms within his sparse rope cocoon.  
The dragon pinched the bridge of their nose, “No, you moron. I’m not a sorcerer, I’m a dragon. I can just take this form if I wish to disguise myself to little twiggy excuses for humans like you.” The dragon turned back into it’s more gargantuan and much more lizardy state, “This is how I really look.”  
The boy looked up at them and blinked, much less afraid now that he knew he wasn’t going to be eaten apparently, “Oh. Sorry about that stranger, but do you think you could help me out of these ropes really quick?” He struggled a little bit for emphasise.  
The dragon sighed through their nose, hooked one of the ropes under a sharp claw, pulled, and snapped it. They only had to do that about three times along his body and then twice more for his wrists and ankles. The boy stood and rubbed his wrists experimentally then grinned up at the dragon, seemingly ignoring his multiple small stab wounds. The dragon stared blankly back down. “Boy, what are you doing in this forest? I don’t mean what you’re here for but how have you not been killed? You just tripped into a fairy village. Don’t you know what signs to look for?” The dragon inquired harshly.  
The boy blinked, “Well… No, not really but I figured it would be obvious so I just sort of… I guess I expected that I thought I would know fairy signs when I saw them.” He mumbled as he kicked a rock under his shoe and looked down at the ground shyly.  
The dragon thought their eyes were going to roll right out of their head, “Fairies leave signs in a one mile radius around their villages.” The dragon pointed one claw towards a tree where the carcass of a butterfly was stuck to a tree with a small spear, “The fairies are very vain and see butterflies, dragonflies, and moths as their competition for the most beautiful winged creatures so they kill them and leave them as marks for others not to come into their territory. They are blatantly placed in plain sight and you’re telling me that you didn’t see any of them?” The dragon asked incredulously.  
The boy looked up at the dead butterfly on the tree trunk with a dumbfounded expression, “Oooooohhh, that’s what those mean.” He whispered.  
The dragon slapped a paw over their eyes in a show of annoyance for the boy’s ignorance on what was supposed to be common knowledge, “Yes you stupid stinking ape, that’s what those mean.” They said in a completely exhausted tone as if the boy’s stupidity alone was enough to drain them.  
The boy pouted, “I have a name, you know. And it isn’t ‘stupid stinking ape’. Oh wait! That’s right, I haven’t introduced myself, how silly of me!” The boy laughed at his own slip in etiquette and extended his hand as if to shake hands with the dragon, “My name’s William!” He stated cheerily.  
The dragon looked from his hand to his face and back and slowly pushed his arm back down to his side using one large, clawed finger, “Charmed.” The dragon said sarcastically. William looked up at them and gestured for them to continue with something, making a rolling motion with his hands and giving them “go on go on” kind of look. “... What?” The dragon asked, genuinely confused.  
It was William’s turn to roll his eyes now, “What’s your name?” He asked with laughter in his voice.  
The dragon blinked. A Name. Huh, that issue never really came up during any part of their life. They had always just been called “the dragon”, “the fiery doom bringer”, or “lodäzulythe ulylăralyi” which roughly translates to “winged death” in the Great Southern Archipelago where they mainly speak the ancient Ӓjegi language. But the dragon never had an actual name before. Odd how things worked out that way. The dragon looked away as they tried to come up with an answer or a random name, upon thinking of neither they told William the truth, “I don’t have a name.” They stated blandly.  
William dropped his hands back down to his sides, “Seriously? Why don’t you have a name?” He asked curiously.  
The dragon huffed, “I don’t know, I just never got around to it I guess. Why is it even important?”  
William gestured wildly as if trying to physically grasp a reason why it was important before he gave up and plainly said, “It just is, okay?” His expression changed to the one of a child who just discovered that if you push the lever on the toilet, the toilet will flush, “Can I pick your name for you?” He asked animatedly, bouncing up and down on like an excited toddler.  
The dragon put a hand on his head to stop him from bouncing and waited a second before saying, “No.”  
William slumped, “Aw c’mon, why not?” He gripped.  
“I am not letting an excitable child name me. How old are you anyway, 13 or so?” They  
asked, raising a scaly eyebrow at him.  
William groaned loudly in annoyance, “No! I’m 19 years old! Why does everyone always think I’m 13 or something?” He asked in an offended tone.  
The dragon snorted, “Maybe because you act like a 13 year old.” They stated. They realized that they were still talking to this little whelp and decided to take their leave before they got attached to it and decided to feed it or something. “Well, good luck to you William. You’re going to need it.” They said abruptly as they turned to walk in the direction of their rock. But as they went to leave they felt something tug their tail.  
A loud “Wait!” was shouted from behind them as they stopped walking out of pure shock. They swiveled their head around on their long neck and brought their tail around to look at the pink, squishy, blonde perpetrator who was looking more and more like a good option for a snack with every passing second as he hung from their tail. They were almost moved by the look of fear of abandonment on his face, “Where are you going?” He asked quieter than he normally spoke and with a hint of hurt in his voice.  
The dragon took a second to think before answering, they had no idea why at the time, “I’m going back to my rock, where else would I go?” They said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.  
William looked like he was trying to actually come up with an answer to their rhetorical question, “I don’t know, why would you want to go back to a stupid rock anyway? It seems really boring and kind of lonely.” The dragon blinked in surprise, because the boy was absolutely right. It was boring as all sin and, well, they guessed even dragons needed some sort of company because it was lonely. But the dragon quickly snapped back to reality when the foolish boy added, “And, well, I guess I thought we could be friends.”  
The dragon dryly retorted with, “I don’t make friends.” and flicked him off their tail and onto the ground, but not as harshly as they could have. They let out a heavy huff and started to walk away again. This time the boy didn’t try to stop them, but did something even more annoying. He followed them.  
They went all the way back to their rock with William stubbornly in tow behind. They even flopped down and rolled to face away from him, a pointed sign of “I don’t want you to be here”. Yet just like with the fairies, it was apparently just another sign he couldn’t read. William flopped down next to the rock behind their back and started rummaging around in his bag for something. He pulled out some gauze, cotton pads, and a bottle of straight alcohol. The sharp smell made the dragon wrinkle their nose as the boy started to pour it over his wounds then wrap them. Once he was done dressing his wounds he dug around in his pack some more and pulled out some food and started to eat. The kid needed to learn to eat more quietly because the dragon heard every chomp, smack, and crunch the boy made while he was eating. Once he was done and had put his things away the dragon expected him to leave. But he just sat there. And sat there. And sat there. For about an hour the dragon had to endure the annoyance of the boy’s stubborn presence. Finally they got fed up, they whipped their head around to look at him and growled deep in their throat. To the dragon’s absolute fury the human simply looked at him with a casual and slightly bored expression and asked with all the innocence of a basket of baby ducks and pomeranian puppies, “What?”  
The dragon snorted, blowing his hair back, “What do you mean ‘what’? I want to know just what it is you’re looking to accomplish by invading a dragon’s personal space for hours at a time.” They bellowed in irritation.  
William had the absolute gall to roll his eyes at them, “Okay drama queen, first of all, it hasn’t been hours it’s been an hour. Second of all, I’m here to try and convince you to come with me.” He said, just as obnoxiously chipper as ever.  
The dragon could feel their eye twitch, “Convince me? You haven’t said anything, you’ve just been sitting there in silence and annoying me to no end.” They took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of their snout, closing their eyes as if they would explode if they saw him again. “Just what makes you think that you can convince me to go with you on this little suicide mission of yours?” They asked in a thoroughly vexed manner.  
They could almost hear the wheels turning in that tiny brain of his as he searched for an answer to their inquiry. What the dragon wasn’t expecting was for him to come up with one, and a damn good one at that. “Because you have nothing better to do.” The dragon actually froze, this kid had an uncanny ability to be both stupid and completely right at the same time. “And besides, this could actually end up being fun!” He said enthusiastically.  
The dragon took their turn and rolled their eyes at him for what seemed like the millionth time that day, and they had just met him. “More like I’ll have to pull you feet first out of danger every time you screw up.” They said venomously.  
William gave the dragon another gapped tooth grin, “So you’re thinking about it?” He asked hopefully.  
The dragon groaned, because yes, yes they were thinking about it. And the more they thought about it the less and less horrific of an idea it sounded like even though a horrific idea was exactly what it was. So instead of deal with it he simply rolled back over and said, “No.”  
William sighed, “C’mooon, it involves treasure! Aren’t dragons supposed to love hoarding treasure?” He whined.  
The dragon didn’t even bother to look over their shoulder when they retorted with a dry comment, “No, that’s just a stupid stereotype humans spread because of one dragon who really happened to like their bling.”  
William was a persistent little bugger they had to give him that. “What if I told you that I can help you find someone to make you a prosthetic wing?” Now he had the dragon’s attention.  
“What?” They asked in a bewildered manner as they whipped their head back around to face him.  
William stood with his arms crossed and an unbearably smug look on his face, “Yep, you heard me. We could have in enchanted so it moved at will too. A fully functional prosthetic. And we’ll probably be able to get a discount if you intimidate them enough.”  
The dragon’s head was spinning with a hundred thoughts. They hadn’t even thought of that. Why hadn’t they thought about that? They could be able to fly again. If they found the treasure they could pay for it up front. They could have a new wing and be able to do the only thing dragons truly loved. But there was one problem that was bugging the dragon, “That castle is just an old myth. You don’t even know for sure if the treasure is there.” They said bitterly.  
William considered that, “True, but no matter if I find the treasure or not I’m still willing to get you your prosthetic whether we find it or not. Just take me to the center of The Forest and back and you’re guaranteed to have a new wing.” The kid sounded like a professional salesman, even if he was a complete nincompoop. He was so sure of himself. The dragon couldn’t help but to be sure of him too. They were going to fly again. They were finally going to fly again. “And one more thing,” William continued, “I get to pick a name for you!” He went back to his usual childlike excitedness and his gap toothed grin.  
The dragon sighed heavily and started to get up, “Fine, but I get to choose if I like it or not.” They said as they started to stretch.  
William started bouncing around and let out a victory woop, “Alright! Lets get going, no time to lose!” He said as he whipped his map quickly out of his bag and hefted the heavy backpack onto his shoulders with surprising speed. The dragon could not believe they were going to head into the heart of an extremely deadly forest with this hyperactive idiot they met just that morning. And to make things all that much more wonderful, William felt the need to start the whole “name the dragon” process ASAP. “Alright, so how about the name Lenny Adamson?” He asked while making a grandiose gesture like he was imagining that name in lights.  
The dragon immediately answered, “No.”  
“Shablanka Ohtulka?”  
“Nope.”  
“George Alatorre?”  
“No.”  
“Cassandra Blusterbottoms?”  
“Not gonna happen.”  
“Bruce Hashten?”  
“Absolutely not.”  
“Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen?”  
“No.”  
“Okay, now I know that you’re just disagreeing to disagree because that last one was pretty great.”  
The dragon groaned. This was going to be a long trip.


	2. Summer Rains and Reminiscing About Big Ass Snakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It rains and dragon tells a story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pretty short and mostly consists of William being a giant toddler in the body of a 19 year-old, but then again that's pretty much the whole story, really.

As it turned out, William was far more chatty than the dragon would have liked. He babbled and yammered almost the whole way, occasionally stopping to list off the newest batch of possible names to them that he had thought up. Almost all of them were either ridiculous for a dragon, too ridiculous for humans or even their pets to have, or they just didn’t feel right to them.  
They had been traveling for two weeks through the woods and the dragon had formed a fairly unique ability to completely block out the constant stream of pointless jibber jabber coming from William and give completely generic and yet still good answers to his questions. Not to mention the fact that the dragon had become a giant scaly babysitter for the kid. So far the little cluts had accidentally tripped into a Morning Dew plant which might have sounded like another pretty flower but it was a plant that had three ten foot long leaves all covered in short hairs that all had what looked like dew drops on them. But the drops of dew were actually produced by the plant, each drop was thick like molasses and only got thicker the more the prey struggled. The liquid was sweet smelling to attract unsuspecting animals but once they were caught the plant would roll up it’s giant leaf and start secreting digestive enzymes into the liquid, essentially digesting the prey alive. It had taken forcibly unrolling the plant, which was easier said than done, ripping half the leaf off of the plant, and burning the rest of the plant into a smouldering lump in the dirt.The dragon had also had to pull him out of quicksand when he wasn’t looking where he was walking on his way to a berry bush and stop him from being clubbed to death by a lone male minotaur when he thought it was a good idea to take a drying rack full of meat he found in the woods that the minotaur had left there while he went to go to the bathroom. It goes without even saying that the dragon also steered him away from multiple potential disasters by using their knowledge of The Forest and of the things that lurked there.  
The sun was going down for the day and the dragon could smell rain on the way, and a lot of it. It would most likely last all through the night and the dragon was thinking about how it had been a while since they had felt a nice cool rain against their back when William decided it was time to play “let’s invade the privacy of others”. They were facing in the opposite direction and looking at the progressing grey mass of clouds but they could hear him stop fumbling with smoothing out his sleeping mat next to the fire for a second when he asked, “Dragon? How did you lose your wing?” with careful curiosity.  
The dragon stiffened for a second before they remembered that he wasn’t looking to laugh at the dragon’s suffering, he was just a nosey human boy who knew nothing about his current traveling companion. Sure they were a dragon but even dragons had stories, especially long ones at that. The dragon let out a huff, not really wanting to relive the day they lost their ability to fly but they knew he would just keep pestering them until they told him how it happened so why not go down the path of least resistance, or so they say? They turned and laid down with a deep thud on the opposing side of the fire they had lit, “It was a long time ago, many years before you were born. About 73 years ago to be exact.” They started in a bland tone.  
William bounced up and down in that way he did when he was excited and flopped down, sitting cross legged and looking up at the dragon expectantly like a preschooler during story time. His look of excitement turned to puzzlement and he quickly asked, “Okay, before you start there’s just something I’ve just always wanted to know,” He started, holding up a finger, “How long do dragons usually live?”  
The dragon sighed heavily at the interruption, “We live for around seven thousand and a half years. Are you going to interrupt like that the whole time?” They asked in an annoyed manner.  
William made a zipping motion across his mouth and mimed like he was throwing out the key, “Nope, go ahead.”  
They rolled their golden eyes and continued, “As I was saying, it was about 73 years ago and I was checking out a cave at the base of a mountain about a weeks travel from the edge of The Forest by foot. It was supposed to contain some sort of mighty beast and it had killed a couple dozen humans already. The people in the town nearby saw it as a curse. I saw it as a challenge. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into and i still had that classic arrogance of youth, I’m sure you know what I mean.” The dragon said that last part mockingly and tried to ignore William sticking his tongue out at them as they continued, “I flew up to the base of the mountain and to the cave, I snatched a cow on my way to use as bait. I cooked the cow and blew the smell of cooking meat into the cave by flapping my wings to draw whatever it was out into the open. I might be able to see fairly well in the dark but I had to be prepared for the chance that this creature had heat sensing or infrared sight like some snakes and cave dwellers do. Unfortunately I ended up getting something that was both of those things. A basilisk, one of the biggest and most dangerous reptile on the planet besides my own kind, came out of the cave. It was a Black Dungeon Basilisk, one of the biggest breeds of basilisk at 70 feet long and weighing about two and a half tons.  
“As I said, I was highly unprepared and I didn’t know how to fight one of those things at all. For a dragon, I was fairly inexperienced and young, even at over four hundred years old.I was hiding off to one side of the cave’s mouth and when it came out it immediately went for the cow and while it’s neck was extended I went to bite it’s head off. What I didn’t know was that the giant snake had smelled me and it knew exactly where I was the whole time. It turned on me and I could only barely dodge out of the way before it bit me dead on in the face. It had missed and bit just above my right shoulder but now we were in close quarters, it was able to throw a coil around one of my legs and I had to grab it’s throat with both my hands to keep it from latching onto my neck. I wasn’t expecting it to be so hard to hold and I lost my grip right as it went to strike again, and again, I dodged out of the way. But with the both of us so close it couldn’t completely miss me this time. It clamped down on my left wing. It wouldn’t let go so I stomped down on it’s body to stop it from moving and bit down as hard as I could on it’s neck, took it’s head clean off. The venom in those things’ fangs they have targets the nervous system so my wing started to lose feeling and go completely limp. I could feel it spreading and I had to move fast before the venom spread to the rest of my body. So I bit off my own wing at the base. It hurt like hell and it took a few tries but I managed to get it off before the venom had a chance to get too far. After that I decided to go to one of the only places no human would go to take advantage of a weakened dragon, The Forest. I guess I just never left even after I healed.”  
The dragon trailed off and looked up, realizing that they had been staring at the fire the whole time they were speaking. They must have been quite the storyteller because the boy was staring at them with wide eyes and his jaw dropped. “Close your mouth boy, you’ll catch flies.” The dragon said blandly as they laid their head down onto the ground.  
William did as he was told and tried to find something to say to all that, “I’m sorry that you lost your wing.” He said over the crackle of flames that separated them.  
The dragon snorted yellow flames, “Why are you sorry? You weren’t the one who took on a giant snake and expected to get out in one piece.”  
William gave them an exasperated look, “It’s a human expression of condolences and you know it, smart alec.” He said right as he felt a drop of rain hit his nose. He looked up as the sparse drops became more and more audible as they hit against the leaves that made up the canopy overhead. “Aw man, I didn’t bring a tent with me.” He lamented.  
The dragon grunted, “Hm, tough luck kid.” They said as they settled onto the ground into a more comfortable position partially on their side.  
William rushed to get his sleeping roll off the ground before it got wet with the slowly increasing rain, “C’mon, can’t you help me out here?” He whined as he scrambled to stuff his things into his bag.  
The dragon gave him an incredulous look, “How would I be able to help you? Stop the rain?” They said cynically.  
“No, just let me, I don’t know, sleep under your wing or something? I don’t want to sleep in the rain!” He said frantically, clutching his backpack close and glancing up at the sky occasionally as the rain started to get gradually heavier and heavier.  
The dragon cracked open an eye at him, “No.” They said frankly before shutting their eye again.  
He slumped and dropped his stuff onto the dirt, which was getting more damp with each passing second, “Are you being serious?” He asked, his voice wounded and small.  
They looked at him once more to see the pitiful look on his face. The dragon heaved a sigh and lifting their wing, spreading it out a ways like a big tarp over the forest floor, “Fine you little whiner, hurry up before I change my mind.”  
William lifted his arms in victory with a triumphant “Yes!” before he scrambled to pick up his things and ran over towards them in that gangly, uncoordinated way of his. He ran around the fire and hurdled the dragon’s neck, going around their arm and ducking under their wing and setting his stuff down. “Thanks dragon!” He said cheerfully as he unrolled his sleeping mat under the cover of his large acquaintance’s wing.  
“Don’t mention it.” They grumbled back at him.  
William finished fussing around with his blankets on his mat and had burrowed his way under them. He looked towards the dragon’s head, “Hey dragon? Aren’t you uncomfortable out in the rain like that? And won't your wing get tired after a while?” He asked, concern in his voice.  
The dragon scoffed at his worry, he was oh so very human, “My wing is more at rest stretched out than it is tucked against my side so no it’s not uncomfortable. And my scales form a thick armor so no water touches my skin when it rains and my body temperature is a couple hundred degrees warmer than yours so the rain wouldn’t do much even if it could touch my skin. The rain is actually very soothing to me, rather ironically.” The dragon yawned widely, baring the long dagger-like teeth that lined their gums.  
William rolled onto his stomach and rested his chin on his crossed arms so he could better look at the dragon, “Why exactly would it be ironic?” He asked, still as curious as ever even when it was obvious that his traveling partner was trying to go to sleep.  
“The questions never end with you do they, kid? It’s ironic because dragons can’t swim because we’re too heavy and our limbs aren’t properly proportioned for it, the water is the only element we don’t have a mastery over.” They yawned again, “Go to sleep now boy, we start to travel again when the sun rises. The sooner we get to the center of The Forest and back again the better.” The dragon rumbled.  
William rolled back over, “Goodnight dragon!” He said, fidgeting around some more before he settled. He drifted to sleep to the sound of rain drops pattering steadily against the armor hide and the drawn wing membrane of his reptilian traveling companion, and the dragon drifted with the oh so breakable human boy under their wing.


	3. The Enchanted Chain-mail Bikini Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a chain-mail bikini. Mushrooms are not healthy for everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here comes the angsty chapter. Brace yourselves.

Two months later and the dragon and William had still not yet reached the center of The Forest, but were now almost half way there. Things got more and more treacherous as they went, the closer to the center they got the more deadly the obstacles they faced. It seemed as if every day brought a new life threatening obstacle to either avoid or have to face dead on. But the dragon was starting to become less and less of a babysitter and more and more of a mentor to William about how to deal with the dangers they faced. The boy was getting stronger and more cunning with every encounter with goblins, deadly bugs, carnivorous plants, and other assortment of nasty creatures that wanted to do him harm. And whether they liked it or not, the dragon was starting to think of the boy as more of a partner than a nuisance to be dealt with until they could get their new wing. William had come no closer to finding a proper name for the dragon and his process of randomly spewing out suggestions could almost be timed by the dragon now. They were starting to see evidence of their progress, they found an abandoned thieves wagon which was full of stolen and fairly valuable goods. All the food in the wagon had since gone bad except for some cheese and a bit of smoked meat stowed away in a floor compartment. They had no idea what had happened to the thief who owned the wagon but it was clear that they weren’t coming back. The two of them probably should have taken that as a bad omen but William was more entranced by all the wonders to be found in the wagon and the dragon was more preoccupied by the fact that this wagon meant that they had come farther than even blood thirsty thieves.  
William dug around through the wagon after the dragon had assured him that yes, the people who owned the things in it was dead so it was fair game. He shoved the food that wasn’t bad into his backpack along with much of the money, jewelry, and gems. He also found a few weapons among other things but most of it was too heavy to carry with them. He did decide that it was about time to be armed with something since the last time they had to travel through a stream he had to beat a horde of giant leeches to death with a branch while the dragon watched from the sidelines. He grabbed one of the lighter swords and it’s sheath and strapped it on around his waist. The sword had a double edged two foot long straight blade and a leather wrapping on the hilt that seemed to fit in his hand perfectly. He swung it around a few times to see how it felt and he had to admit that he handled it better than he thought he would, swinging it through the air in sharp slices. Then the dragon had to go and ruin it, “You look like you’re swatting at flies with a stick.” They rumbled with a throaty chuckle, sometimes he really wished that the dragon hadn’t gotten comfortable enough around him to finally start showing their sense of humor. Their very warped, mean, and sadistic sense of humor that is.   
William put his sword back into its sheath a little less than gracefully while glaring at the dragon over his shoulder, “Oh hardy har har, you’re so funny for an oversized gecko.” He said with no small amount of sarcasm lacing his voice. He was starting to think that the dragon’s attitude was rubbing off on him a little. The dragon simply snorted and William could almost feel them roll their eyes at him. The whole “eye rolling contest” that went on between the two of them was still ongoing, even though the dragon was the one supplying most of the eye rolls between the two. William went back to rummaging around and found what he guessed was a plus sized leather belt that had once belonged to someone very wealthy. It had intricate inlaid gold leaf designs and trim surrounding an assortment of precious gems studded along almost the entire length, with a large gold belt buckle in the center. Most of the gems on the leather itself were aquamarine stones in a circular cut and the occasional peridot with the same cut in between them and the belt buckle had a large fire opal with a trillion cut surrounded by smaller emeralds. It was big and gaudy and it fit the dragon perfectly, “Hey dragon, hold out your wrist for a second.” He said as he turned around and hopped out of the wagon, still inspecting the belt as he walked towards them.  
The dragon raised an eyebrow but held out one of their front hands anyway, “Just what are you planning on doing now, boy?” The dragon sighed, half expecting some sort of hair brained joke to come of this. Instead, the boy fastened the belt around the dragon’s wrist as a sort of bracelet. It fit almost perfectly, with just enough room in between the belt and the dragon’s scales to allow it to be comfortable and not restricting. The dragon grunted in appreciation of the gems and the elegantly twisting gold leaf design, holding it up closer to their face.  
William was looking up at them expectantly, “So, what do you think?” He asked imploringly, rocking back and forth on his heals with his hands behind his back.  
The dragon glanced down at him and snorted, patting his head with a giant scaly hand, “Thank you boy. Although it doesn’t exactly scream ferocious it’s quite nice.” They said blandly before looking up to the clouds, William flashing the gap between his two front teeth in a wide grin as he bounced back to the wagon. They always kept one eye on the forest ahead and one eye on the weather just in case of a freak summer storm, which could be just as deadly as any creature in these trees. What they saw instead of storm clouds was a pale line of smoke slowly drifting towards the blue sky like a lazy ghost in no rush to reach the heavens. It wasn’t a forest fire, there would have been a lot more smoke and thicker smoke as well, it was more likely that it was smoke from a chimney or a small camp fire. Every sense the dragon had went on full alert, there was someone out here with them and it was more than likely that if they made it this far they were just as well equipt as a scrawny young man with a dragon for a body guard.  
The dragon never took their eyes off the line of smoke as they shot a quick order down to their human charge, “William, stay in that wagon and don’t wander off.” They rumbled like an oncoming storm.  
William immediately stopped looking through the wagon and looked out of one of the windows up at the dragon, who was starting to lift themselves into their back legs to stand at their full height. William knew that when they used his actual name that things were serious and that they only stood on their back legs when they wanted to scout out something ahead that might be a danger. “What is it dragon?” He said in an intense whisper as if something might hear him, drawing his sword and looking around through the other windows.   
The dragon had finally straightened themself as far as they could without toppling over, They were able to see over the trees to the source of the smoke, they saw what looked like a chimney made of river stones held together by homemade mortar poking just through the leaves. They were downwind so they were able to smell the smoke and the certain scents coming from the house. They took a few deep inhales through their nose and caught a whiff of something that smelled like a mixture of sulfur and herbs cooking and the very distinct musk of a hippogryph. They knew exactly who was living in that small house. They let out a sigh of relief followed by a deep rumbling chuckle, that crazy old Wood Nix was still doing his potion making where the authorities wouldn’t catch him. The dragon thought he’d either finally had the law catch up to him or that the old loon had finally blown himself to bits. They lowered back onto all fours carefully, “False alarm boy, it’s just an old acquaintance of mine, Alder. He finally found a way to practice his potion making without the kings guard busting down his door for illegal use of alchemy and magic.” The dragon dropped onto their front legs with a deep thud.  
William poked his head out of the wagon, a look of puzzlement plain on his face, “You’re friends with someone who practices illegal magic?” He inquired in absolute befuddlement.  
“He’s not a friend really, just someone who owes me a lot of favors. We’ll have to drop by for a night or two on our way back and mooch some good food and supplies from him.” The dragon mused, amusing themselves by imagining the look on the old Nix’s face if they were to impersonate the king’s authorities banging on his door when they visited him.  
William shrugged, “Sure, I could use a hot meal after eating nothing but venison steaks from the deer you catch for a month and a half straight… and that one cockatrice you killed a couple weeks ago, tasted just like chicken. Do you think your ‘acquaintance’ will have some cockatrice meat? That was actually pretty good.” William babbled as he went back to look through the wagon once more to make sure he didn’t miss anything valuable. The dragon relaxed and sat down, going back to being the look out.  
“I doubt it, the Wood Nix people don’t eat meat at all. But you might be able to convince his hippogryph, Bramble to catch you some if you ask nicely and give her something shiney.” The dragon responded dully.  
William gasped in excitement, “Oh cool, a hippogryph? I’ve never seen one of those before!” He said as he crashed around through drawers and cabinets.  
“Be glad you haven’t met another one before. Bramble was raised from an egg by Alder so she’s tame around people. Any other of her kind would shred you in less than a second.” There wasn’t any guarantee that Bramble would be as kind to William either actually, he was a stranger to her after all. The dragon was glad that they were about three times bigger than her so she wouldn’t get the chance if they had any say in it.   
From inside the wagon the dragon heard William stop, a quiet and serious, “Oh my god.” escaping him. The dragon went on alert again, looking down to the wagon with a mixture of intensity and concern. William piped up again, “Dragon, I just found the best treasure yet.” He said with more severity than dragon had ever heard him use yet, immediately catching their whole attention. Then he walked out holding a chainmail bikini, a wide grin on his face, “Enchanted armor!” He sing songed, holding the top and bottoms out for the dragon to see.  
The dragon gave him a withering look and hooked one of the straps on the top to hold it up closer, fully examining it’s complete ridiculousness. It was fairly well made, the chain links making up the cups, which were much too small to cover much of anything on even the most board flat of human women, being so small and tightly linked that you couldn’t stick even the smallest pin through it. Most of the metal it was made of was silver but there were gold links in the mail that made an ornate floral pattern along the edges of the cup. The strings were made of tough, silvery braided strings with small opal beads placed one every inch or so along the length. And to make it worse there was frilly, silvery lace around the tops of the cups and all along the straps. By far, it was the most unconventional, completely useless, and hair brained idea for armor that the dragon had ever seen. The dragon slowly looked back down at William, a tired look on their face, and William looked back up at them with an expectant look on his face. “This is the stupidest thing I have ever seen in my entire life and I’ve been alive for almost 500 years now.” The dragon declared blandly.  
William sighed and shook his head as if the dragon was the one being ridiculous here, “Just give it here and I’ll show you what’s so great about it!” He held out his hand, nearly vibrating with excitement. The dragon placed the outrageous garment back in his hand and watched the boy as he carefully placed the two pieces together on the ground, spaced as if they were being worn by a person about his size. He unsheathed his sword and brought it above his head, smashing it down onto the bikini top with enough force to chop it in half along with a good couple of inches of dirt. But the blade didn’t hit it. A faint green shield that looked as if it could almost be a trick of the light stopped the sword about half an inch from it’s mark, radiating steadily from where the sword hovered just above the bikini top to the bottoms in a translucent green wave.  
The dragon raised their eyebrows, “Hm, looks like it really is enchanted. So are you going to walk around with those over your clothes now or something?” The dragon mocked.  
William rolled his eyes, “No, of course I’m not going to wear them over my clothes. That would look stupid.” He said as he started to take off his pants. The dragon pinched the bridge of their snout, heaving a heavy sigh. When they looked back at him with an expression that begged the question of “are you finally going crazy?” he had put the bottoms on over his undergarments and had taken off his shirt. He was tying the back strings together in front of him with the top on backwards, once it was secure he turned it around and put his arms through the loops as he hummed a nameless tune. He put his hands on his hips, stood with his feet shoulder length apart, and puffed out his chest in a heroic pose, “I’m ready for action.” He declared boldly, his bikini top glittering in the sun being filtered through the leaves.The dragon looked at him blankly before bursting into loud, rumbling peals of laughter that startled a nearby flock of sparrows into flight. By the time they had stopped William had put his clothes back on over the bikini and was glaring at the dragon with his backpack on. “Are you done now?”  
The dragon sniggered and nodded, leading the way back into the forest and away from the cart. After a couple minutes of walking in silence the dragon finally spoke up, “Don’t be self conscious, it suits your beanpole figure fairly well.” They chided. William punched the dragon’s leg, it felt like a tap to the dragon who had started to laugh at him again.  
After that they walked up hill for a few more hours and were starting to look for a good place to set up camp for the night. The dragon was starting to think that they would settle in the mossy clearing that was near a fairly large stream which ran off to the left into the woods where it sounded like it ran into a bigger body of water. William was interested in a deep purple lump he spotted just under the moss cover, it was covered in small pockmarks that almost looked like the pores in skin. He could have swore that he saw it move a little. “Hey dragon, come look at this thing.” He said as he examined it and went to poke it.  
The dragon turned with a questioning grunt and saw the purple orb right as he was about to touch it, their eyes going wide and body going rigid. “No, William! Don’t tou-!” But they issued their warning too late. He prodded the purple sphere with one finger and looked up at dragon with a fearful look as it shifted and moved, starting to rise out of the moss. It was around half a foot in diameter and under the dark purple hemisphere hood there was a pale white face, a very grumpy face too. The dragon froze and spoke very softly to WIlliam, never taking their eyes off of the little face in the moss which was looking them both over in disapproval, “William, that is a Mushramen. If they release their spores we’ll be at their mercy, we will see and hear anything they want us to. I want you to stand and back up very very slowly.” They instructed, hearing WIlliam’s breathing come quicker as he started to panic. He did as he was told, rising in a shaky but slow manner. But as he went to back up his foot caught on another purple hemisphere starting to rise out of the moss to see what all the commotion was about. William fell backwards onto the ground with a noisy thud and the clatter of his backpack. He looked up at dragon, scared and confused. Meanwhile more and more of the angry, wrinkled faces were slowly rising out of the moss in front of them, they had stumbled into a cluster of Mushramen. All of their tiny squinted eyes trained on the two intruders, the clearing had transformed from a mossy green clearing to a sea of purple caps ranging in size and height. “William.” Dragon said in a low warning, “Run.”  
William’s eyes flickered from the Mushramen who were starting to make angry chirping noises to one another back to the dragon as if he couldn’t comprehend what they had just said. “William. I want you to run right now.” They commanded, not bothering to be quiet now. The Mushramen had started screeching, they didn’t have much time now. William scrambled to his feet and as he did a thick yellow cloud puffed into the air from the tops of the Mushramen. It was too late. The hallucinogenic spores that made up the yellow dust had gotten into the dragon’s and William’s eyes. The dragon roared and William screamed, the boy rubbing at his eyes frantically and the dragon rearing back out of shock. When they both opened their eyes everything was tilting, distorted and warped by the Mushramen’s mind altering spores. The little malicious fungi could manipulate what they saw and heard, but not what they could feel.  
The dragon couldn’t hear William scream anymore. They needed to steady themself. They dropped back down, took a few deep breaths through their nose, and dug their claws into the dirt as if to anchor themself. “William? Boy answer me.” They said as calmly as they could manage. They couldn’t hear anything but birds chirping and the clearing was seemingly back to normal now, except it was empty. The dragon knew that they couldn’t trust their eyes, ears, or even their own nose, so they carefully felt their way around the clearing. They felt a couple of the knobby heads of the Mushramen beneath their feet and didn’t have any reservations about stomping them to pieces. But that wasn’t their focus right now, they needed to find William and make sure they didn’t make him kill himself somehow. They didn’t want to imagine how they would do it, but they were sure the little devils could easily find a way to do it. The dragon shuffled along and out into the woods, calling for William and hoping that the boy’s voice could make it through the spore’s effects. They heard his voice ahead of them, calling for them in a panicked tone, calling for help. They hurried now, bumping into trees now and then but they were dead set on getting to him before the Mushramens managed to kill him. “Stay put boy, I’m coming!” They bellowed.  
They put a foot down and felt something damp splash against their ankle. Water, they were trying to drown them. The dragon grinned cruelly, they were going to burn the little sad excuses for slime molds to ashes for this. They dunked their head into the cold water with their eyes wide open, clearing out the spores and most of their effects. They pulled their head up out of the water after they were satisfied that their eyes were sufficiently clear and blinked the water away. Their normal hearing came back and they saw that they were standing in front of a waterfall that went down a cliff about five stories. They weren’t trying to drown the dragon. They were going to throw them off a cliff. They were mocking their inability to fly. The dragon felt their belly twist with blazing fury, they let out a furious roar and a blast of fire into the sky. They sprinted back towards the Mushramens who were trying desperately to regain their mental hold over the raging beast and trying to send out another cloud of spores. But they had nothing left, they had expended all of their spores in one go. The dragon crashed through the trees and into the clearing with a roar, the Mushramen at their feet screamed in terror as the dragon blasted them with one fireball after another. They reduced the whole clearing to dust and scorched the surrounding tree trunks. They panted with exertion and their remaining bits or anger. Then they remembered, William was still under the influence of the spores. And the illusion that they set up could last for minutes after the fungi who had released the spores were dead.  
The dragon quickly caught his scent and raced in the direction it lead, they realized that they were going back towards the waterfall. They could start to hear his voice as they barrelled through the woods towards him, he was talking to his hallucination. The dragon cursed themself for not remembering that the spores had a greater mental effect on humans, they could make him think that what he was seeing was real. They drew closer and followed his voice, “Wow! Dragon you’re really flying!” They sped up, panic turned their blood to ice. They heard him drop his bag to the ground, “Of course I’ll join you!”   
The dragon crashed through the trees just in time to see William take a one last step over the ledge of the cliff, “WILLIAM, NO!” They tried to get a hold of the back of his shirt with their teeth only for their jaws to snap closed on empty air. They skidded to a halt on the edge of the cliff, panting heavily and shaking. They could only watch. He hit a jutting rock with his side on the way down and let out a sharp yelp. That was the only noise he was able to get out before he hit the ground below with a sickening thud that made the dragon’s heart feel as if it had dropped out of their body. He didn’t move and the dragon stared in disbelief before they let out the most pathetic, pained scream that they had ever let escape their throat. It sounded more like an injured and frightened bear squealing or like a raspy screech.   
They clumsily tried to drop backwards down the cliff and landed ungracefully next to William’s limp form. They were afraid to touch him, he had blood dribbling out of his mouth and one of his legs was bent at an odd angle. He was breathing and they could have sobbed in relief if it weren’t for the fact that their throat felt as if it was sealed shut. His breaths were coming in tiny, pained rasps like a scared rodent. His eyes were open and he was looking up at the dragon with wide blue eyes that spelled out fear and pain better than any words. The dragon couldn’t help him in their larger form, so they quickly changed into their human form. They knelt beside him and went to touch him, to do something that might help him but they were too panicked and they couldn’t think of anything to do that wouldn’t hurt him. They swallowed and closed their eyes, they needed to think. Acting like a flighty rabbit and not doing anything wasn’t going to help him. Adler's house was about six miles behind them. He owed them several favors. He had potions that could help William.   
They opened their eyes with a new resolve, they went over to William’s bag which they had knocked off the cliff on the way down. They pulled out one of his larger blankets and spread it on the ground next to him. They knelt beside him on his side opposite of the blanket and looked at him, he looked back with pleading eyes, “I’m sorry.” They said before they went to pick him up as gently as possible to carry him the short distance to the middle of the blanket. He screamed, high and loud and it felt like the dragon’s chest was splitting open but they concentrated on setting him down as gently as they could in the middle of the blanket. They had arranged it so that one corner was above his head, the second to his left, the third to his right and they let his legs dangle over the edges of the blanket with the fourth corner being between them. The dragon made sure that he was safely on the blanket before they brought all of the corners up into a point and tied them together above him. They looked over their makeshift carrying bundle to be sure it supported all the right parts and kept pressure off of others. They changed back into their larger form and took hold of the knot, gently lifting him off the ground and listening to make sure he wasn’t in any more pain than he already was. He was quiet except for his short rasps so they figured that he was fine and started off in the direction of the faint line of smoke that stretched up to the sky in the distance.  
They ran the whole way and what had taken them hours one way took the dragon one and a half back. William had become delirious with pain in his bundle and he had started coming up with strange names for the dragon when he was conscious. The dragon couldn’t answer him, they were too busy cursing themself for not getting there sooner, for letting their petty rage get in the way of keeping William safe. After what seemed like forever they finally arrived at the little log cabin with a thatch roof, Bramble’s brown and grey form sat out front cleaning dinner from her claws as the dragon came to a skidding halt in front of her. She examined him with sharp green eyes and cocked her head to the side while letting out a curious trill in her throat, questioning why they were here. The dragon spoke around the blanket knot clenched in their teeth, “I need to collect one of my favors from Alder.” They said with a strong urgency in their tone.   
Bramble’s eyes flicked from the dragon’s face down to the partially bloody bundle that hung from their mouth, then she stepped out of the way and nodded towards the door. The dragon gingerly set William down onto the ground in front of the door and changed into their human form once more, knocking on the door with loud raps that shook the frame that was made from twisted branches. They heard cursing and bottles clattering, a stool scooting back on a stone floor and wooden feet clomping towards the door. The squat Wood Nix flung the door open, his bark covered face twisted in anger behind thick, round lenses at being interrupted, “WHAT DO YO- oh.” The little old lump of wood looked up at the dragon’s dire face in shock. He blinked, “Dragon! How the hell have you been you old lizard?” He exclaimed loudly, trying to step forward but the dragon held out an arm to stop him before he stepped on William’s broken form in the bundle. Alder gave them a puzzled look and then looked down as dragon untied the blanket’s corners and revealed William, who looked to be in even worse shape than before. Alder paused, “You brought me your dinner?” Behind them, Bramble’s feather covered ears perked up at the word “dinner”.   
The dragon huffed and bent to pick up William, who only had the strength to whimper weakly at the pain it caused, “No, you’re going to fix him.” They stated matter-of-factly as they shoved past the stout wooden creature and carried him over to the nearest table that would hold him, clearing it of it’s contents with one sweep of their arm as Alder sputtered behind them and slammed the door. The house had many small and large tables scattered randomly around the room, all at least partially covered in bottles both empty and filled with various liquids of questionable nature and the things used to make up the liquid and mix them together.  
“What? Since when do you help random humans? And since when do you tell me what to do?” Alder stomped up next to dragon, the wooden joints in his stubby fingers creaking quietly as he clenched his fists in outrage.  
The dragon finished laying William down and gave the Wood Nix a look that could freeze children playing outside on a hot summer day completely solid. “He isn’t just some random human.” They rumbled coldly. They whipped around to face him and bent to reach his eye level, baring their teeth and their eyes glowing with blinding fury, “And you listen to me because you owe me favors for saving your ancient wooden hide more than once and because if you don’t fix him I will burn you to a lump of charcoal, are we clear?” The dragon asked in an intense whisper.  
The terrified Wood Nix noded frantically in response with wide eyes set deep into wood textured sockets. “Good, now go get some healing potions.” The dragon said as they straightened to look over William again.  
The Wood Nix rubbed the bridge of his scrunched up, round nose under his glasses and sighed deeply, going to get a stool, “I need to see what kind of wounds he has first.” He said in a tired tone, standing on the wobbly stool and rolling up the sleeves of his green burlap shirt. He got a knife from a drawer and cut away Williams shirt with one swift movement to reveal that he was still wearing his ridiculous chainmail bikini top. The Wood Nix stopped and examined William’s choice of underwear in confusion, looking up at dragon as if he either expected an answer or expected dragon to admit to being a lot more interesting in their free time with this human than they let on.   
The dragon didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so they took a deep breath and answered the best they could, “It’s enchanted, it’s supposed to be able to keep a blade from piercing anything in between the top and the bottoms.” The dragon said quietly.  
The Wood Nix tested it, tapping the green translucent forcefield with his knife, “Well, as stupid as it may look on him it may have saved the kid’s life. Look-” He said, pointing to a large bruise that covered half of William’s side, “That should have exploded at least a couple of his organs on impact, but it only broke a few of his ribs and might have given him some internal organ bruising. He’s damn lucky to be alive right now.” He finished as he continued to look over the boy and his injuries. “What did the poor kid do? Throw himself off a fucking cliff?” He asked in disbelief as he hopped off the stool to go get the appropriate potions.  
The dragon stared at his face which was twisted in pain even when he wasn’t conscious, “Yes. He did.” The dragon sighed heavily, “We stumbled right into a cluster of Mushramen and I couldn’t get to him in time.” They said, their voice heavy with guilt.   
The Wood Nix tried to clap them on the shoulder as a sign of condolences but they could only reach their mid back. “He’ll be good as new in a couple weeks once we get these potions in him.” He said as he waddled back over to his stool with a bright blue and an orange potion, clambering back up. He leaned over William’s face and smacked his cheek a couple times to try and wake him, “Wakey wakey sleeping beauty, time to take your medicine.” He said loudly. William turned his face away from his voice and whimpered weakly, face twisting further in pain. Dragon growled in warning at Alder, “Oh hush, mama bear. I’m just trying to make sure he’s awake to drink it so we won't drown him.” He said, rolling his dark green eyes. William blinked open his eyes partially and they immediately tried to droop back closed.   
The dragon grabbed his face with a clawed hand and patted his cheek more gently than Alder had, “No no no, come on boy you have to stay awake now.” William grumbled something quietly at them and scrunched up his eyebrows, the dragon nodded at Alder. Alder handed the spherical potion bottle to the dragon and held open William’s mouth, the dragon poured half of it into his mouth. WIlliam made a gagging sound but swallowed the blue liquid without spitting it out. They continued giving him half a bottle at a time until they were both gone, by the time they were done force feeding him potions he looked more at ease. The dragon recognised that the blue potion was a pain killer and a sedative, he would sleep through the worst of the pain of his bones setting themselves back into place.  
It took two weeks for William to heal completely, the dragon sat next to him most of the time he was in the guest cot. The dragon had to feed him at least twice a day by hand, they had to mix another pain killer potion into his food every four days to keep him asleep or at least heavily groggy while he was healing. He had grown a a sparse 5 o’clock shadow but it only grew to about maybe a little past the point of being considered a patchy peach fuzz. Over that time that dragon had a lot of time to think over what had happened with the Mushramen, what went wrong and what to do about it mostly. He finally fully healed and they waited for the sleeping potion to wear off completely.   
The dragon had been sleeping in a comfortable chair next to William’s bed, the cushions were stuffed with dried moss and it was soft but not too soft so they’d definitely had worse sleeping arrangements. One morning they woke up to see William sitting up in bed with his face shaven, a hot bowl of Alder’s vegetarian soup in his hands, and a grin on his face. When the dragon looked away because of the sharp stab of guilt that pierced through their gut they saw his grin falter through the corner of their eye. Alder quietly brought over a plate with a slab of cooked meat on it and set it on the dragon’s lap, his gaze flickering over the two of them before he opened his mouth only to close it again as if what he was about to say wasn’t right so he had second thoughts. Instead he said, “I’m going to go pick some herbs. Dragon, be sure to thank Bramble for sharing her breakfast.” He said as he waddled out the door in a hurry.  
William watched him go and the dragon bent over their steak of mystery meat, eating in silence in order to put off the inevitable conversation. Once they were both done and the dragon had wordlessly put the dirty dishes in the sink, they sat back down with a sigh. They didn’t look at him as they said, “William, we need to talk.”  
William fiddled with the sheets covering his legs and was pouting, he thought the dragon was mad at him, “I’m sorry I didn’t run the first time you told me, I freaked out okay?” He mumbled quietly.  
The dragon raked their fingers through their long green hair which was out of it’s ponytail, “That’s not what I meant. I’d actually forgotten about that. I mean we have to talk about the fact that you almost died. And I know that you’ve gotten yourself into danger like that before but either you figured out a way to get out of it or I was right there to get you out of it. Those times you could’ve gotten hurt or killed but you didn’t. This time you did get hurt and you almost did get killed. The only reason you’re alive right now is because of that damned bikini armor and even that didn’t keep you from breaking four ribs.” They looked over at William who was avoiding their gaze by either looking at his lap or out the window next to his cot, but they knew he was listening. “I think it’s time for you to go home, William.” They said finally.   
William looked at him with a look of shock, betrayal, and panic, “No. No, I’m not going home not now.” He shook his head and set his mouth in a defiant line.  
The dragon closed their eyes, not looking forward to having to convince him, “William it’s not worth your life. This has made me realize that there are just some situations in which I can’t protect you. You can’t expect me allow you to continue risking your life for treasure that might not even be there.” They hadn’t meant to start yelling but they were angry, angry at themself mostly but also a little angry at him for not seeing that this just not the place for a boy like him. They took another deep breath, William was still shaking his head and now he was fighting back tears, “William I’ve already asked for Bramble to fly you out of The Forest and back home. You leave tomorrow.” They said with a tone of finality.  
William slammed both hands down on the bed on either side of his hips and made the dragon flinch in surprise, “NO! I’m not going back empty handed! Some thieves jewels won't be enough to please him! I have to come back with the king’s treasure or not come back at all! I don’t want him to call me useless again!” He was screaming at them. Furious tears spilled down his cheeks and he gripped onto the sheets, once he realized all that he had said he went from anger to quiet defeat. He went on and explained, “My dad kicked me out of the house. I’ve never been talented at anything my whole life. Even on the farm I never did anything right, I messed up everything whenever I tried to help. Finally my dad got fed up with me getting in the way of him and my six older brothers around the farm so he just… kicked me out. Told me to come back when I was worth something. I heard the story about the crazy king’s treasure and I figured that if I came back with something that hundreds of men had died looking for that he would have to take me back.” He sounded so small, like a kicked dog who didn’t even know what they did wrong but still accepted the punishment.  
The dragon looked at him blankly. What could they say to that? They didn’t know anything about having parents or family of any kind. Dragons just laid their eggs and left. They had no idea what to say in response to it, or if they had any right to say anything. So they didn’t say anything. They just huffed and stood up, “We leave tomorrow. Get out of bed and help Alder make some potions or something, I got your bag from the cliff so you don’t need to worry about that.” They ordered. They turned to face him again, he looked back up at them with his jaw dropped and sniffled, “William. Don’t you dare make me regret changing my mind.” They rumbled. William’s face broke out in a grin and he lept out of bed, nearly toppling the dragon over with the force of his hug. He buried his snot and tear covered face into the dragon’s chest, babbling out a steady flow of “thank you”s. The dragon made a face and patted his shoulder lightly before peeling the boy off of them, “Like I said, don’t make me regret it. Now go through your things and make sure everything is alright with your supplies.” They said dismissively. William bounced off to find his bag, happily humming to himself and wiping away the snot from his face that he didn’t get on the dragon’s shirt.  
The dragon was about to go outside to let Bramble know that she wouldn’t be being used as a mode of transportation when William spoke up from behind them, “Hey dragon?” They turned to look at him, “Thank you.” He said.  
“Don’t mention it.” The dragon said as they usually did. They left Alder’s house the next day to continue heading to The Forest’s center.


	4. Let Sleeping Kings Lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another short chapter in which William is a man and dragon gets a name.

They’d made it. After another three months of hard travel they’d finally made it to the crumbling ruins of the castle of the mad king. They had traveled hard but William never had another near death experience along the way, whatever they faced along the way he faced bravely with dragon either helping him or coaching him from the sidelines. William had learned how to handle his sword with grace and purpose and his arms had gotten stronger because of it. He had practiced as they walked, when he had finished eating dinner, before he ate dinner, and at any opportunity he found. They were going to easily be able to find their way back using the slashes he’d left on all the trees he’d practiced on. He had come no closer to finding a name for dragon and after a while the suggestions came less and less frequently. He hadn’t listed off a single name for about a week when they reached the ruins of the castle. They stood silently in it’s shadow and honestly, William had been expecting something different. Something grander, bigger, taller than a half crumbled stone building that couldn't have been more than about 150 feet by 150 feet. There were a couple smaller buildings here and there separate from the castle but they were in the same condition as the castle itself. William looked into the dark, gaping archway of the front gate, the gate itself had long since disintegrated into splinters on the cobblestone landing. “Well. This is it.” He said quietly.  
The dragon looked ahead at the same archway and grunted, “Looks like it.” They said back in that dry way that William had actually grown pretty fond of over the months. He had also grown to be grateful that he didn’t even need to ask to sleep under the dragon’s wing anymore when it was raining and they were settling down to sleep. And the way that he didn’t need to even look behind him to see that the dragon was following. The dragon bumped his shoulder lightly with their leg, “Come on beanpole, you do the honors.” They said, nodding towards the gateway.   
William took a deep breath to steady himself, “Alright.” He said, more to himself than the dragon. He started walking in and the dragon followed, ducking under the archway and looking up at the rotting, sagging, and busted wooden rafters overhead. Above the rafters there was blue sky which was a stark contrast from the dark castle that smelled of mold and dank. They walked forward on the damp and rotting carpet that was most likely once a bright red, ahead of them was a half crumbled stone throne. Sitting there was the mad king himself, or at least what was left of him. His crown was crusted over with something crusty and brown and his jaw hung open in a unsettling way that made you think he was laughing. Other that a few scraps of cloth clinging to his bones he was completely picked dry. In his skeleton hand on one of the armrests was an empty gold goblet, studded with various gems. William didn’t feel right taking the goblet so he turned to the dragon, “You wanna check the rest of the castle and stuff?” He asked.  
The dragon just nodded, “Yeah, I’ll check the West wing. You can take the East wing.” They said, turning to head towards the West wing while William did the same and turned to the East. They looked for a good hour or so, they checked every room and checked it again. They found nothing. Not a single coin of gold. Not even a tapestry. The two of the met back in front of the mad king.  
The dragon suggested checking the out buildings but WIlliam just shook his head, “No, there’s no treasure. Accept for that goblet. But that doesn’t feel right taking it, ya know? He died with the only treasure he had left, let him keep it.” The dragon never understood the human practices for honoring their dead but they agreed that the idea of taking it didn’t feel right.  
They nodded, “Looks like the old coot spent all his funds building a castle out here in the middle of nowhere.” They stated solemnly.  
William sighed, “Yeah, looks like he did.” He said quietly. He hung his head low and walked slowly out of the archway and onto the grass. He dropped his bag before he flopped down and sat with his legs out in front of him, hunched forward slightly. The dragon followed him and watched him sit, oh no, they thought to themself, the poor kid’s devastated.  
They tried to find some way to cheer him up or at least make him feel better, “There’s other treasure out there, besides it isn’t like we didn’t pick up those gems and stuff a few months ago.” They tried to sound reassuring but it just fell flat when it came from them. “Hey, fuck your dad. You don’t need him, who wants to work on a farm anyway?” The dragon noticed that William’s shoulders were shaking. They stopped talking, thinking that they’d only made it worse. But he flopped back onto his back and it turned out he was laughing, not crying.  
“Dragon look at how far I’ve come. Look at all I’ve done. I met a dragon, one of the few left, and didn’t get eaten right off the bat. I’ve gotten stronger and more knowledgeable about how to fend for myself than I ever thought was possible. I’ve found a castle that most people doubted even existed, all with the help of a friend who has saved my life more times than I can count and who I trust with my life. My dad will never be proud of me no matter what I do. I could move the damn World for him and he would still refuse to recognize that I’d done anything great. He doesn’t want to be proud of me so I’m going to be. I just can’t believe that it took me over six months of chasing a legend and almost dying, several times, to see that.” He finished, looking up at the sky with a grin.   
The dragon realized something in that moment, this was not the boy who they had met that late spring morning. This was the man they had watched him grow into. He spoke with more conviction, he walked with his head held higher, he thought faster, he was stronger, hell, he didn’t even look the same. His face was more defined, with sharper angles and none of the little baby fat he used to have. The dragon smiled, or at least did the closest thing they could to a smile since they were a giant lizard, but William knew they were smiling. “Wow, you sound like you’re one dense guy, pipsqueek.” They teased.  
The dragon sat next to him on the grass and looked up at the non existent clouds with him. William sat up again and looked over at the dragon’s belly, which was almost a mirror of the vast expanse of blue above them. He touched one of the smooth blue scales, “Hey dragon.” He said, the dragon responded with a grunt of recognition as they continued to look at the sky. “I think I might have finally found a name for you.” He said, his voice a little bit distant. The dragon looked down at him and raised their eyebrows at him imploringly. “How about Sky?”  
Coming from anyone else, the dragon would have thought they were mocking them. But this was William, and they knew that he would never do that, at least not about the loss of their ability to fly. And it actually had a bit of a ring to it. “I like it.” Sky said.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really know if I wanna continue with this honestly, some positive feedback would really help keep me motivated though so if you have anything nice to say or anything constructive to say please don't be shy at all =w= My tumblr is [here](http://thecatinthepurplepants.tumblr.com/) just in case you might wanna get some news on what I'm currently working on with the story (or if you just wanna follow me). 
> 
> Thank you for reading and don't forget to take your vitamins, you beautiful humans~ =＾● ⋏ ●＾=


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